graffiti on a cyber wall

Update at the bottom.
 
I'm not an authority on this subject.  This is just what I think.  

My friend John from Owl and Terrapin had a yin to hear about Yin. I didn't think that would be a big deal, but it has turned out to be more Yang than I imagined. I've spent a few days doing a little research, consulting with one of my mentors, and getting my thoughts together.

A very little bit of history.

Yin is part of both Confucianism and Taoism. Confucius didn't know about Yin. It became part to that system of thought after his death. Confucius taught moral and ethical behavior.  When Yin/Yang was absorbed by Confucianism, both Yin and Yang were endowed with moral attributes.  Yin and Yang, as part of a ethical dichotomy carry moral judgements.
Taoists see Yin a bit differently.  Yin is part of a wave, an oscillation. It isn't part of the dichotomy of good and evil or black and white.

Yin has been described as feminine, cold, wet, slow, soft, passive, yielding, and diffuse. It has been associated with darkness, water, earth, the moon, and night.
 
In either system Yin has no meaning apart from Yang.  They give rise to each other. They compliment each other.  The difficulty in discussing yin arises from Yin's reliance on Yang for its existence and meaning.  There is no wave it one half is missing.


Yin and Yang try to look as different as possible while being identical.  And reversible. It's the idea of identical differences. Check out Alan Watts for more on this. 
Yin is part of an energy wave.

Before "let there be light" (Genesis 1:3) was there only dark.  No....there was no dichotomy.  There was no dark.  "Let there be light" Yang and Yin.
If there was only Yang, you would create Yin.
There is nothing to do
and everything to do
Now
Tao
The Universe
God
Spirit
The Divine
The word is not the thing
Don't grasp
Expand containing all things

What can you know?  Words are obscured by their proliferation.
The 10,000 things
This from that
That from this
The affirmation is rooted in denial of the other?

They ate from עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע? (Genesis 3:6).  God tried to warn them.  Avoid the dichotomy. They didn't.  And we still eat there.

It's this and that.
Not this or that.

Yin/Yang
Mind/Universe
Wave/Particle
UIDst = 7hd + 4hd

The illusion that one will win over the other is a silly illusion.

UPDATE

Same Differences

"Which meaning brings meaning
when brought to mind?
Which meaning brings meaning
when brought to heart?
Feel meaniong, know purpose.
Know meaning, feel purpose.
Witness the qualities within their differences
and know that the Tao...rests in their sameness."
~ The Tao of Circles by Carl Garant

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A lot happened between the previous installment  and the trip west.  
 
Interlude:
 
While I was at Samford I was drafted to serve in Vietnam.  Being a hippie and an outspoken, highly visible, anti-war protestor, I wore underwear that said 'give peace a chance' on the butt to my physical.  Remember, I was living in Alabama at the time. It wasn't always safe to be a hippie walking down the street.   At my physical, they decided I was a conscientious objector.   I spent my two years doing civilian duty and continued to protest the war.
During these interlude years,  Jesus Freak me worked at His House, a Christian mission  helping the homeless, drug addicts, and runaways, had a gospel radio show, worked with special needs children, got married, spent 4 months traveling the country in a red VW micro bus, and discovered mushrooms.  The borders of my spiritual world began to expand as I transitioned from my narrow, rule based understanding of 'truth' to a more open understanding.  I was moving from intolerance to tolerance.  I was moving from being judgmental to being loving. 


With everything we owned packed in a Dodge van, no where to stay, no job prospects, and little money, we drove to Golden Gate Seminary  in Marin County, California.   Within the week, we had good paying jobs that came with a ranch style home and I was enrolled is seminary. Cool beans. The Universe provides.

There was a professor at the seminary who was getting a third PhD in biology.  He was easily in his 60s, maybe older.   I was curious and asked him why he was the pursueing this degree.  He said, 'God created everything.  If you want to know about God learn about what He made.  It says a lot about how He thinks.'  Around the same time I started watching Alan Watts on TV.  The intersection of these two events were a pivotal point in my journey.   The professor's 'learn about what God made' and Watts' blend of Taoism and Zen changed my mindset.  I no longer wanted to explain 'truth', I wanted to see it clearly without the filter that is language.  The word is not the thing.   The name of a thing is a label.  How do you know it's labeled correctly?

I have to toss this in the mix, learning to easily read the New Testament Bible in Greek was a real spiritual eye opener too.

Stay tuned for the next installment: The Bus Years

Don't forget we travel in at least four dimensions:  spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical.   I know I left out time.  We invented it.  It's part of the mental dimension.  I know I left out space.  It's mostly empty.   It's part of the physical dimension. 
MU

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I recently read a blog post, The Universe Next Door.  The title sent  my liar mind off into a direction unrelated to the content of the blog. 

The title reminded me that the mind makes things up.  I'd like to think it is making things up that are in my best interest.  That hasn't proven to be right.  Well, half the time it's not right.  There is the whole ying/yang thing.  Seems my mind often makes me afraid, sad, depressed, suspicious, happy, gleeful, excited, loving, and a world of other things.
   
Are my thoughts real or are they  memoryrx? 
 
It reminded me that being mindful is a totally different life experience than living in my head.
So many times in life I've let my mind take me down paths that were imaginary. 
 
Coming back to the present is the universe next door to the one my mind is making up.
  
So, are these ideas a lie created by my mind.  Or not.  Hard for me to tell the difference.
  
I guess I'll just Be Here Now.
 
Fly your freak flag high!  Peace and love

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First Things First 
   

Day 5: Something Positive That Has Happened In The Past Year

 

    
...we have to forget things like "I should be mindful of this or that". If you are mindful, you are already creating a separation ("I - am - mindful - of - ...."). Don't be mindful, please! When you walk, just walk. Let the walk walk. Let the talk talk (Dogen Zenji says: "When we open our mouths, it is filled with Dharma"). Let the eating eat, the sitting sit, the work work. Let sleep sleep.  ~Muho Noelke